I doubt many of the incoming freshmen at Lehigh who are about to enter the College of Engineering have any clue what they are getting themselves into. I suspect they will end up very pleased with their choice… especially when they realize large numbers of engineering graduates before them did not take jobs as engineers but instead were hired as consultants – as a result many graduates are paid much higher salaries than they would have dreamt of as freshmen.
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But are they waging a rearguard battle, will the US become a services-land where most of the real engineering is outsourced to countries that value science more, and where the so-called engineers are number-crunching problem-solvers who stare at computers all day long? Or will the pendulum swing back in the engineers’ favor after a Sputnik-like incident that will bring engineering back into the list of national priorities?

As I have said many times the economic future will be greatly influenced by science and engineering. Those countries that succeed in creating a positive economic climate for science and engineering development will find economic rewards those that fail to do so will suffer…

“In today’s competitive world, the dividing line between an entrepreneur and a professional is getting blurred. Whatever one is pursuing, one has to be entrepreneurial ‘and’ professional in his or her mindset…”

Armetra October 13th, 2012 @ 6:04 pm

Agree with this article. I’m also engineers myself, that currently working on engineering consultants firm. And the thing is, I found very hard to progress on my career during my fresh-graduate period. But, after gained some experience in engineering design field, than I realize how much thankful and competitive the engineering career, indeed.